Today, 34 local authorities in England are holding local elections, and also one local authority election in Anglesey.
Mop Denson tweeted this morning:
@david_cameron I’ve got my stop #HS2 t-shirt on and I shall be off to vote this morning!
— mop denson (@mopdenson) May 2, 2013
As I said in the Stop HS2 press release last week
“[For] People along the route of HS2… HS2 is a local issue. It threatens the places they love, damages businesses and causes uncertainty and property blight in the areas in which they live. HS2 costs local councils money because their staff are doing the work HS2 Ltd can’t be bothered to do. Local people will look at their local councillors and candidates and ask themselves ‘what has this person done about HS2? What is their party, locally and nationally, doing about HS2?’”
A number of media outlets are also aware that HS2 is affecting people’s voting decisions.
BBC London News report from Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire the day before the local council elections:
BBC: Staffordshire elections: Potholes and HS2 issues for voters
BBC: Is blue still the colour in Middle England?
BBC: Warwickshire elections: Street lights and HS2 are issues in ballot
Bucks Herald: Aylesbury Vale Greens hope to capitalise on HS2
South Heath: Council Elections – How much will HS2 cost the ‘big three’?
Guardian: Ukip aims to turn Tory heartland purple with rage over HS2 ‘betrayal’
Telegraph: We join the Ukip candidate hoping to trigger a political earthquake in the Tories’ Chiltern heartland
You would think with most people voting against hs2 along the route David would drop his project off the queens speech .can the man see we can not afford it ,we will loose more jobs than we gain .in 20 yrs time self drive cars will be the norm no one wants to loose there homes or business with the cost of building going up every day .so come on David drop this mad project now before the next election if this project is what your pinning your hopes on you will lose not win
There you have it, Mr. Cameron, there’s obviously no more to be said…
Mind you, I’m a little concerned at the prospect of “loose…homes and businesses” flying around all amongst those driverless cars. It all sounds rather dangerous.
I think I’ll stick with the train.
Lets all hope ukip keeps its word and fights for hs2 to be stopped in its tracks
As the tunnel goes under the house next door, HS2 is certainly a local issue for me but, yesterday, for the first time ever, I felt that I could not exercise my right to vote.
According to a BBC report, Bucks Tories are fighting while the Lib Dems think we are spending too much money doing so but both parties support HS2 at a national level. Labour have apparently given up the fight and clearly UKIP is not a realistic option, even as a protest vote. I could have written ‘Stop HS2’ on my ballot paper but no one would notice or care, although I would have voted.
If you say that I shouldn’t have made my decision based on a BBC report, I should point out that no party except UKIP bothered to put a leaflet through my door.
I don’t know, I just feel democracy isn’t being well served here.
As so many national and local politicians, Lichfield MP Michael Fabricant, a latter day King Knut, tells HS2 that, if they don’t go round him and his constituents, he will stop HS2 ‘in its tracks’ – my interpretation. Now, if they offer him a station, that’ll be another matter. . .
Negotiating with HS2 is not about ‘begger my neighbour’ or ‘what’s in it for me?’ though these are the key drivers for our ‘leaders’. Instead of using their crib sheets to rattle of the benefits, they should look very closely at what HS2 will do and not what the grand claims are to realise how damaging a 300 mile strip with an iron curtain on either side and up the heart of England will be to communities and the environment: communities cut in two, nature only having right of passage where there has to be a viaduct.
It’s a massive LibLabCon trick.